What Is Drug Policy For?
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What Is Drug Policy For?
What Is Drug Policy For?
There is general agreement about the need to criminalise the production, sale, and possession of certain drugs, yet the costly international apparatus surrounding this is failing. But why do we criminalise some substances and not others? Is the purpose misguided, or the methods, or both?
Julia Buxton looks at how our current drug control regime came about from the first US-driven international meeting on drug control in 1909 that became a war with the inbuilt moral self-righteousness of the colonial era.
She also charts the evolution of the contemporary drugs market, examining where drugs are now produced and consumed, and by whom. Buxton gives voice to those who get caught up in this world as consumers and low-level producers and sellers. Ultimately, she asks, if the current strategy is patently failing, how could it be done better?
Series: What Is It For?
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INFORMATION
ISBN: 9781529241440
Publisher: Bristol University Press
Format: Paperback / softback
Date Published: 30 September 2025
Country: United Kingdom
Imprint: Bristol University Press
Illustration: Not illustrated
Audience: General / adult, Professional and scholarly
DIMENSIONS
Width: 127.0mm
Height: 203.0mm
Weight: 0g
Pages: 208
About the Author
Julia Buxton is Professor of Justice at John Moores University in Liverpool and British Academy Global Professor. Her research, teaching and supervision focus on illicit drug markets and the impact of counter narcotics policies on development, gender equality and security. She has experience of applied and practice focused research in policy design and evaluation, including conflict, rights based and gender sensitive processes. She has geographical expertise on Latin America and is a specialist on Venezuela.
Julia was previously Professor of Comparative Politics, Associate Dean and Acting Dean at the School of Public Policy, Central European University in Budapest where she managed awards from Open Society Foundations Global Drug Policy Programme on drug policy analysis, drug policy enforcement, and an annual drug policy reform summer school. She previously held positions in Peace Studies at the University of Bradford, Georgetown University and Kingston University.
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